Today in history
Today is Wednesday, April 24, the 114th day of 2019. There are 251 days left in the year.
On this date in history On April 24, 1980, the United States launched an unsuccessful attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.
1800 — Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.
1915 — In what’s considered the start of the Armenian genocide, the Ottoman Empire began rounding up Armenian political and cultural leaders in Constantinople.
1916 — Some 1,600 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin.
1932 — In the Free State of Prussia, the Nazi Party gained a plurality of seats in parliamentary elections.
1970 — The People’s Republic of China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, “The East Is Red.”
1990 — The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
1995 — The final bomb linked to the Unabomber exploded inside the Sacramento, California, offices of a lobbying group, killing chief lobbyist Gilbert B. Murray. (Theodore Kaczynski was later sentenced to four lifetimes in prison for a series of bombings that killed three men and injured 29 others.)
2013 — In Bangladesh, a shoddily constructed eightstory commercial building housing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.
Ten years ago — Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across its overcrowded capital in hopes of containing a deadly swine flu outbreak. Backto-back suicide bombers struck near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad, killing 71.
Five years ago — An Afghan government security guard opened fire on foreign doctors at a Kabul hospital, killing three Americans in the latest of a deadly string of attacks on Western civilians there.
One year ago — Former police officer Joseph DeAngelo was arrested at his home near Sacramento after DNA linked him to crimes attributed to the socalled Golden State Killer; authorities believed he committed 13 murders and more than 50 rapes in the 1970s and 1980s. (DeAngelo is awaiting trial.)
Today’s birthdays Movie director-producer Richard Donner is 89. Actress Shirley MacLaine is
85. Actress-singer-director Barbra Streisand is 77. Rock musician Doug Clifford (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 74. Rock singermusician Rob Hyman is
69. Former Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny is 68. Actorplaywright Eric Bogosian is 66. Rock singer-musician Jack Blades (Night Ranger) is 65. Actor Michael O’Keefe is 64. Rock musician David J (Bauhaus) is 62. Actor Glenn Morshower is 60. Rock musician Billy Gould is 56. Actor-comedian Cedric the Entertainer is
55. Actor Djimon Hounsou is 55. Rock musician Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors) is
51. Actor Aidan Gillen is
51. Actress Melinda Clarke is 50. Actor Rory McCann is 50. Latin pop singer Alejandro Fernandez is
48. Country-rock musician Brad Morgan (DriveBy Truckers) is 48. Rock musician Brian Marshall (Creed; Alter Bridge) is 46. Actor Derek Luke is 45. Actor Eric Balfour is 42. Actress Rebecca Mader is
42. Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard is 40. Country singer Danny Gokey is 39. Actress Reagan Gomez is
39. Actor Austin Nichols is
39. Actress Sasha Barrese is 38. Contemporary Christian musician Jasen Rauch (Red) is 38. Singer Kelly Clarkson is 37. Rock singer-musician Tyson Ritter (The All-American Rejects) is 35. Country singer Carly Pearce is 29. Actor Joe Keery is 27. Actor Jack Quaid is 27. Actor Doc Shaw is 27. Actor Jordan Fisher is 25. Golfer Lydia Ko is 22.
Thought for today “The door to the past is a strange door. It swings open and things pass through it, but they pass in one direction only. No man can return across that threshold, though he can look down still and see the green light waver in the water weeds.” — Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist (1907-1977).